VIPS (Vaccine Innovation Prioritisation Strategy)

The Vaccine Innovation Prioritisation Strategy (VIPS) represents an unprecedented three-year collaboration between the Gavi Secretariat, World Health Organization (WHO), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and PATH– known as the VIPS Alliance - to develop a single integrated framework to evaluate and prioritise vaccine product innovations and to drive these innovations forward.

Innovative approaches are needed to help to address immunisation barriers and achieve immunisation coverage and equity goals. Vaccine product innovations offer important means to simplify logistics, increase the acceptability and safety of immunisation, minimise missed opportunities, and facilitate outreach. There is increasing recognition of the need to employ targeted solutions to extend vaccine access to reach the unreached.

The VIPS process involved in-depth research, stakeholder consultations, and development and application of a methodology capable of evaluating a variety of technologies at different stages along the product development pipeline continuum. The work required understanding countries’ needs to consider the expected financial and non-financial impacts of innovations; developing common principles across the Alliance to assess the long-term benefits of product innovations; and convening a platform of stakeholders to articulate a clear and aligned perspective on priority innovations.

By prioritising innovations in vaccine products, the goal of VIPS is to provide greater clarity to manufacturers and partners to inform and influence investment decisions. VIPS outcomes also represent a first step to mobilise key decision-makers and funders and chart a strategic pathway forward for the prioritised innovations.

The VIPS – Vaccine Innovation Prioritisation Strategy – process concluded in May 2020 with a decision to prioritise 3 innovations / approaches for which the Alliance will engage in to advance development, policy and access:

• Upstream novel delivery device – Microarray patches,
• A combined formulation, regulatory, and novel programmatic approach to vaccine management – Heat stable and Controlled Temperature Chain qualified vaccines, and 
• An implementation/system innovation – Barcodes on primary packaging

The next steps for the VIPS Alliance are to define end-to-end strategies for the three prioritised innovations, including developing clear action plans to accelerate their advancement to uptake and impact.

VIPS methodology and outcomes summary